Nearly one-third of South Korea’s internet cafes, known locally as “PC bang,” could be illicit gambling operations, warned a police administration academic at a regulation forum on Thursday.

Disguised as “PC Bang” only in name and exterior, these establishments run offline gambling operations for the general public, most commonly by installing unclassified games and converting gains obtained through these games into cash.

At a forum attended by lawmakers and gaming industry representatives, Chung Jung-won, a professor at Daegu Catholic University’s Department of Police Administration, highlighted a substantial discrepancy in the number of businesses registered as internet cafes and those that could be authenticated as legal establishments in 2021.